July 2014 editorial

Vinyl me, please!

Vinyl sales are growing at a fast, steady pace and new music lovers and audiophiles are discovering the joys of analogue vinyl playback every day.
However, starting a new vinyl collection isn't an easy task, especially for novices. One might live far from record stores or can be in trouble choosing new albums. A source of guidance might prove to be useful.

Enter Vinyl Me, please!, a monthly service that ships you a new vinyl album every month, together with a new cocktail recipe (just the recipe, not the cocktail!) and an album-inspired piece of art from selected artists. As for music genres choice the guys at Vinyl me, please! say:

In any given month, you're likely to get something hot, something old, or something totally undiscovered. Regardless, you can bet your ass it's going to be awesome.

To get an idea of their musical choices during their first year of activity you might visit the record archive. The cocktails are choosen by Vinyl+Cocktails, a website that suggests good music paired with good cocktails.

Joining the service is easy, you just subscribe to one of the available plans: monthly, 3-month, annual. Here are the costs for US customers and international customers:

US-based Plans:

Monthly: $27 per month

3-month: $75 every 3 months ($25 per month)

Annual: $274 per year ($23 per month)

International Plans:

Monthly: $44 per month

3-month: $120 every 3 months ($40 per month)

Annual: $450 per year ($38 per month)

The international plans might look expensive, especially if one considers there's the possibility you have to add customs fees as well. The US-based annual plans sounds very reasonable instead: 23$ per month for a vinyl album, a cocktail recipe and some album-inspired artwork can't be all that bad :-)
Moreover, the website also offers gift plans, just in case you'd like to give a pleasant and original surprise to a music lover.

At Vinyl me, please! they also suggest a basic record player, in case you're a complete novice and don't own one. The suggested TT is the U-Turn Audio Orbit, a basic player that starts from 179$ and can be customized to meet your preferences (color, cartridge etc.). Hopefully we will be reviewing this turntable anytime soon on TNT-Audio.

I believe this is a very good and original service, that hopefully will be launched in the Old Continent as well, to cut down shipping and customs costs. As we've always said...vinyl is here to stay!